Putin counting on western guarantees for Ukraine debt

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was expecting the United States, European Union or international financial institutions to provide guarantees for the payment of Ukraine's $3 billion debt to Russia.

"We've requested these guarantees from the U.S. government, or the European Union or a major international financial institution," Putin told reporters following the G20 summit.

"And we're hoping this issue will be resolved before the beginning of December this year," he said.

This timeframe was determined "with account taken of the International Monetary Fund's schedule." "I discussed this issue with Ms. Lagarde today 'on the move', but we still negotiated with the U.S. president and finance minister as well," he said, adding that "the proposal was met with interest."

"We agreed with our partners that we would discuss our proposals in more detail soon," he said.